We've got your number: IRGC buys controlling stake in Iran telecom

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) bought a controlling stake in the Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI or Sherkat Mokhaberat Iran) on Sunday in a half-hour operation whose outcome was known in advance.

Late the previous day, Pishgaman Kavir Group had been disqualified in the 11th hour from competing for the telecom shares for 'security reasons' by the Iranian Privatization Organization (IPO). The two remaining rival bids came from groups controlled by the IRGC: the Moaseseyeh Mehr Eghtesadi Iranian (Mehr Iranians' Economic Organization) and the Tosse'eh Etemad Mobin (Mobin Development of Trust) consortium.

The Tosse'eh Etemad Mobin consortium, linked to the IRGC's social affairs mutual fund, bought 50% plus one stock in the state telecom for 340.9 toumans a share which brought the amount of the deal to 7.8 trillion toumans (about $8 billion), the largest transaction in the history of the Tehran stock exchange.

The consortium is made up of three companies: Tosse'eh Etemad, Shahriar Mahestan, and Iran Mobin Electronics Development Company, according to Masoumeh Taherkhani writing in Donyayeh Eghtesad. Tosse'eh Etemad and Shahriar Mahestan investment companies are directly run by the IRGC's social affairs mutual fund. Mobin Electronics belongs to the Setadeh Ejraieh Farman Emam (The Staff for the Enforcement of the Imam's Decree), a labyrinthine foundation directly under the authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office. The foundation is headed by Mohammad Mokhber, named by Khamenei in 2007. The chairman of Iran Mobin Electronics is Seyed Mostafa Seyed Hashemi, a former four-term conservative Majlis representative.

The sale of TCI was scheduled for September 9 (for a previous article go here), but was inexplicably postponed. At the time, it had been predicted that the price tag would be $7-$8 billion, though experts had said that the company's real value, considering its large mobile phone operations, assets, and the fact that it is a monopoly, was at least double that. The winner of the bid was announced yesterday, but the actual transaction will take place on Wednesday.

Moaseseyeh Mehr Eghtesadi Iranian lost its bid to purchase TCI, but the group can take comfort in the fact that the Iranian telecom will now be in the hands of a brother organization. According to its managing director Alireza Baghani in an interview with Iran Tejarat, Moaseseyeh Mehr Eghtesadi Iranian is a subsidiary of the Mehr Finance and Credit Institution, formerly known as the Mehr Fund, which is linked to the Basij and ultimately the IRGC. Though the Moaseseyeh Mehr Eghtesadi Iranian investment group was considered by the Privatization Organization to be a valid bidder, its web page is still under construction.

Privatization Organization head Gholamreza Heidari Kord Zangeneh claimed in an interview with Fars News that Pishgaman Kavir Group had pulled out of the bidding, but the group's president Mohammad Reza Rezainejad said in a statement on the company's web site, 'On Saturday September 26, at 3:39 PM, we received a letter from the Privatization Organization informing us that our company was not qualified to participate in the bid. But both the Privatization Organization and the telecom had approved our company.' Rezaipour told Fars News that Pishgaman Kavir Group had spent over 15 billion toumans (about $15 million) on its failed bid and that someone had to be held accountable for this sum.

According to Ayandeh News, Pishgaman Kavir Group received a fax from the Privatization Organization on Saturday afternoon, disqualifying the company for 'security reasons.' The group's spokesman Mostafa Sajjadi told Ayandeh News, 'It is up to legal bodies to determine who can participate in a historical bid of this nature, but why didn't they tell us from the beginning?' Sajjadi said that his group would pursue the matter in court.

Seyed Mehdi Tabai Aghdaie, member of the governing board of the Privatization Organization, told a televised press conference, 'Our organization could only look into the financial and technical validity of the bidders. Bodies outside the Privatization Organization had to look into the security qualifications.'


Opposition and human rights groups fear that the IRGC will now be able to tighten control over telephone and Internet communications in Iran. Though voicing concern over the acquisition, Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of the IRGC who is now a dissident in Washington DC, said that it would ultimately turn out to be a mistake on the part of the Revolutionary Guards. 'The struggle against the IRGC has entered a new phase in which an easily accessible entity like the telecom can be targeted,' Sazegara said.

Weekend roundup - Monday 28 September 2009

• It's all about semantics. In an interview with Time Magazine's Managing Editor Richard Stengel on Friday, Mahmoud Amadinejad could hardly contain his gleeful grin as Stengel questioned him on the new urnaium enrichment facility which Iran has been building near the holy city of Ghom, and whose existence came to light last week. The new plant would endow Iran with at least two enrichment facilities -- the other known plant is in Natanz -- and would mean that the country is even closer to obtaining enough nuclear material for a bomb. According to reports, Iran divulged the existence of the Ghom plant in a letter addressed to the IAEA last Monday. Hence Ahmadinejad's grin and his ability to tell Stengel that the site is 'not secret', as President Barack Obama announced in Pittsburgh while he was flanked by President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Iran has always contended that as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is only bound to reveal a major nuclear site's existence once nuclear material has been injected into it. The international community's reading of the treaty is that such sites must be declared as soon as construction begins. This morning, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi underlined this position by claiming that Iran had expected to be praised for its transparency because it had revealed the site's construction 18 months before any gas is to be injected into it. Iran may have tried to preempt international censure by sending the letter to the IAEA. According to sources speaking to the Associated Press, American, British, and French intelligence services had discovered the site several years ago and were waiting for construction to be sufficiently advanced before making a surprise announcement.
  
  
  
• With the start of the Iranian academic year, the regime will have to contend with new organized fronts in the opposition movement. Students in Tehran University convened in front of the offices of the faculty of philosophy to protest the presence of Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, former Majlis Speaker and member of the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution. Haddad Adel's daughter is married to Mojtaba Khamenei, Leader Ali Khamenei's son. According to Mowjeh Sabzeh Azadi, Haddad Adel did not emerge from the conference room, so the students began chanting, 'Anti-nation Majlis representative, shame, shame!', 'Haddad Adel, supporter of a murderer!' and 'Whoever is uneducated is with Ahmadinejad!' (Har ki ke bisavadeh, ba Ahmadinejadeh!)
  
  
  According to the opposition Mowjeh Sabzeh Azadi, a much bigger crowd marched elsewhere on the campus today. Waving green ballons, the students called for the resignation of the 'coup government' and shouted 'Death to the dictator!'
  
  
  Another source posted a video purporting to be from the same demonstration today, this time in front of the main library building, and claimed that the number of protesters was growing by the minute.
  
  
  
• The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) bought a controlling stake in the Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI or Sherkat Mokhaberat Iran) in a half-hour operation on Sunday whose outcome was inevitable. The two rival bids were advanced by groups controlled the IRGC. The Tosse'eh Etemad Mobin consortium, linked to the IRGC's social affairs mutual fund, bought 50% plus one stock in the state telecom for 340.9 toumans a share which brought the amount of the deal to 7.8 trillion toumans (about $8 billion), the largest transaction in the history of the Tehran stock exchange.  
  
  
• Parviz Meshkatian, santour virtuoso and composer, passed away on Tuesday of heart failure at the age of 54. Masters of Iranian music spoke at his funeral service on Friday and lamented the loss of their fellow musician. But the presence of government representative, Deputy Minister for Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hossein Imani Khoshkhou, was too much for the participants, who prevented him from speaking by clapping loudly and continuously.
  
  

IRGC intelligence aided by KGB as early as 1979: Former Revolutionary Guards chief makes astonishing slip on live TV

Rezai, presidential debate in June

Mohsen Rezai, former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and a candidate in the 2009 presidential election, told Iranian state television that the IRGC's intelligence service had received tips from the KGB as early as 1979.

Responding to questions over the telephone, Rezai appeared on the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) on Tuesday night in a program devoted to 'soft revolutions.'


'I remember, in the early days of the revolution -- I was in charge of the IRGC's intelligence -- the Soviets would tell us every once in a while that the royalists were making preparations in Turkey to attack us,' Rezai said on the 9 PM show. 'At one point, I think it was the Soviet ambassador who had visited the Supreme Leader... the Agha (NB Agha, or Sir, refers to the Supreme Leader, who was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at the time) called me in and said, "Look into what these people are saying. It seems a bit irrational." I looked into it and determined that they were providing us with very good information.'

Rezai co-founded and led the intelligence unit of the IRGC in 1979. According to some accounts, he commanded forces dispatched to Torkaman Sahra to crush a rebellion later that same year. He became the commander of the IRGC in 1981, at the age of 27. He held that position until 1997, having obtained a doctorate in economics from Tehran University in 1992. He was one of four candidates approved for the 2009 presidential election and has disputed the official results. Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of one of his top advisers Abdolhossein Ruholamini, was beaten to death in an Iranian prison, probably Kahrizak, in July. Though he has muted his criticism in the past two months, he remains close to the Principlist rivals of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

'They were telling us -- it was the KGB in those days -- they were saying, "We have precise information that the royalists are putting together an operation against Iran in Ankara. We wanted to tell you this,"' added Rezai. 'Later it transpired that... not that what they were saying was false, but it wasn't as big as they were saying.'

Opposition figures and protesters believe that Russia, which has close economic and political ties with the Islamic Republic, not only supports the regime, but has provided it with security advice and training. A day after the massive June 15 demonstration which rallied millions of protesters in Tehran, Ahmadinejad flew to Yekaterinburg, Russia, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and was greeted warmly by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. In a statement on July 1, opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi said, 'The people carrying out the crackdown were trained in Russia.' The issue of Etemad Melli, the newspaper of Karroubi's party, which published that statement was banned. The statement was subsequently printed in Kalameh Sabz, an underground newspaper.

The slogan 'Death to Russia!' has become a fixture of street protests in Iran, notably on July 17 and September 18. 

---

Of note:
The other guest of the program was another former head of the IRGC, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, who was present in the studio. He was succeeded by the current IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari in 2007. Ironically, analysts believed at the time that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had decided to replace Rahim Safavi because he was too close to Ahmadinejad, who had provoked rifts within the conservative camp. Jafari, who headed the IRGC's Strategic Studies Center and was a specialist in asymmetrical warfare, was believed to be a more consensual figure.

Jafari has used asymmetrical tactics, effectively fighting a superior military force, in Iraq. He may be employing the same knowledge now, only this time to counter the asymmetrical actions of the green movement in the streets of Iran.

Ahmadinejad gets a New York welcome - Part 2

The evening did not end well for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As he prepared to host a dinner at the InterContinental Barclay Hotel Wednesday night, hundreds of protesters outside chanted slogans against him and the few guests who had not declined his invitation. Two New York venues - the Helmsley Hotel and Gotham House -- had already canceled banquets that the Islamic Republic's president had announced weeks ago. As the revelers arrived under a barrage of insults and boos, some covered their faces while others turned around and left. Ahmadinejad and the rest of his jet-lagged delegation would have to sleep in the same hotel later.

I want to ask him why they held my father for 90 days.

- Turaj Zaim, 33, San Francisco hip-hop artist. Zaim's father, Kourosh Zaim, was arrested a week after the June 12 election, apparenty for having given an interview to Canadian radio.

The demonstrators across from the InterContinental Braclay cried out, 'Come out, murderer!' But as a group of dinner-goers, including a cleric, came out from behind a police van and marched purposefully to the hotel's entrance, the shouts rose in intensity and turned into a continuous hoot:


Other slogans of the evening included 'Ashghal biya biroun!' (Come out, you piece of garbage!), referring to President Ahmadinejad, and 'Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein', referring to his rival in the disputed presidential election:

The green movement now encompasses everyone inside and outside Iran who wants change and freedom for their country 
- Akbar Atri, former student activist. Atri escaped to the U.S. in 2005 after being jailed several times in Iran.

The day's events had been kicked off that morning at 10:30 in Columbus Circle by a group of cyclists who had traveled from Toronto to New York. The group, members of Cycling for Human Rights in Iran, informed New Yorkers of the Iranian regime's crimes and violations as they made a loop around Central Park and continued towards the Iranian Mission at 40th Street and 3rd Avenue, the starting point of one of the rallies organized by Where Is My Vote - New York Chapter.

BoomGen TV's report on the protests includes an interview with some of the members of CHRI:

Ahmadinejad is not my president. 
- Voices of Iranians living in Iran. Iran Alive video art installation shown on Tuesday, September 22 in New York.

The protesters proceeded from the Iran Mission up 3rd Avenue to the corner of 47th Street, where the main rally was to take place next to the UN Building. The number of people grew significantly as the day advanced and soon reached the thousands. Eyewitnesses spoke of at least ten thousand demonstrators, but the figure has not been confirmed by the NYPD. The following footage shows a considerable number of people.

'Political prisoners must be freed!' - 'Liar, where's your 63%?' - 'Independence, freedom, Iranian Republic!' (NB Contrary to the revolution slogan which ended with 'Islamic Republic.')

We asked, 'Where's our vote?' and they answered us with tear gas and batons. 
- Hassan Alizadeh, 38, who had come from Iran to attend the rally. Alizadeh plans to bike to Washington, Charlotte, and Atlanta in protest.

In this video, the cameraman walks past crowds lining the street.

There are thousands in Iran who are in jail, who get beaten...

- Jewish activist as he is being arrested by New York police for blocking traffic while protesting Ahmadinejad.

The rally, at times boisterous, at others more earnest, was always spirited, with an eclectic mix of politics, creative sloganeering, and songs. At one point, Arash Sobhani, leader of the band Kiosk, performed a song. 'It is dismaying that in a country in which 70% of the population is under 30, a dozen old men who are over 400 years old sit in the Guardian Council and get to decide who becomes president,' he told the cheering crowd. 'This song is for the Guardian Council...'


Just outside the UN security perimeter, one Iranian accosted a regime cleric and engaged in talks (for version with subtitles click twice on the image to open in large format in YouTube):

If I had a chance to meet Ahmadinejad, I would say to him, 'You don't deserve to be Iran's president, because you are a cheat and a liar.' 

- Alireza Sadr, 30, dentist. Sadr flew in from Tokyo to attend the protests.

On 1st Avenue and 41st Street, a group of rabbis and Jewish activists were arrested for blocking traffic as they denounced Ahmadinejad. The New York Post said that Ahmadinejad had managed to unite Muslims and Jews on this day of protests:


Meanwhile, inside the UN Building, the General Assembly was in session. Ahmadinejad was programmed to deliver his speech at around 5 PM, but finally arrived at the lectern two hours later. Muammar Ghaddafi's 95-minute unending address was partially to blame.

As Ahmadinejad delivered a series of critiques and suggestions to a an already less-than-full chamber, the number of attentive diplomats began falling alarmingly. Delegation after delegation began walking out ten minutes into the speech as the Islamic Republic's President launched into an anti-Semitic rant about a 'minority group' which controls the world's business and media. The televised fiasco can be viewed here. Moments of interest are at the following time marks 10:30, 11:45, 12:10, 16:15, 27:50, and 30:05. The embarrassing footage shows Ahmadniejad speaking before line after line of empty seats. One twitter activist noted, 'I think I just saw a chair walk out as well.' The scene was broadcast live in Iran, through at least one official news outlet, Fars News, but was probably missed by most Iranian viewers because it took place well after midnight local time.

President Ahmadinejad left the UN Building after his speech to attend what he thought would be a more relaxed event: dinner at the InterContinental Barclay.

Thursday morning, protesters gathered at Brooklyn's Cadman Plaza Park at 10:30 AM local and walked across Brooklyn Bridge with the world-record-breaking green scroll covered with the signatures of tens of thousands of Iranians around the globe who say, 'Ahmadinejad is not my President.'


This evening (Thursday), the Empire State Building will be bathed in green, a fitting tribute to the thousands who attended the events of the past two days. Protesters will gather below the landmark skyscraper for photo shoots. However, the green lighting has nothing to do with Iran. It is part of the 70th anniversary celebration of the movie 'The Wizard of Oz' and the Emerald Ball which will be held at the Tavern in the Green tonight.

(For part 1 go here)

Ahmadinejad gets a New York welcome - Part 1

Cyclists before leaving Toronto

Thousands of Iranians have traveled to New York by chartered bus, plane, automobile, and bicycle to demonstrate against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and support human rights in Iran.

Ahmadinejad arrived in the city last night, Tuesday, to attend the UN General Assembly and deliver a speech today, Wednesday, sometime after 5 PM. For weeks various groups have been planning events and protests to coincide with this visit. Where Is My Vote - New York Chapter is among many organizations which offered cheap transportation on chartered buses to New York ($30 round trip from Washington DC).

The welcome mat had already been pulled out from under Ahmadinejad last week when two venues where he was to speak abruptly canceled the events. On September 17, the New York Helmsley Hotel declared it would not host the president's banquet. Helmsley spokesman Howard Rubenstein said that the hotel was unaware that Ahmadinejad would be at the event and that the banquet hall had been rented months ago by an Iranian student organization. Subsequently, Gotham Hall also cancelled an engagement at which the Islamic Republic's president was to have appeared.

'No vacancy' for Ahmadinejad:



Despite a concerted telephone, fax, and e-mail campaign to get Ahmadinejad thrown out of the InterContinental Barclay, which reportedly had hotel staff up in arms, Ahmadinejad has apparently managed to managed to maintain his reservation at the plush hotel.



Since the start of the week, mobile billboards on trucks have been circling the UN neighborhood, denouncing human rights violations in Iran and attracting considerable attention:

Though the biggest protests will take place today and tomorrow, demonstrators kicked off the events last night at the corner of 47th Street and 2nd Avenue, near the UN building, with an art installation organized by Voices For Iran. Hundreds watched a video projected onto a living screen of white-clad people. The voices in the footage are of Iranians inside Iran and were collected especially for the installation. Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who was detained in Iran months ago, was present at the event, according to Radio Farda.

The original footage that was used in the installtion:



The art installation with the 'living screen':



A group of cycling activists who had been pedaling from Toronto to New York since September 19 arrived to loud applause at the art installation just before the video was screened. They were members of CHRI (Cycling for Human Rights in Iran), a group that had delivered an Amnesty International petition to the Iranian embassy in Ottawa in July after another long bike ride from Toronto.

Footage of CHRI and Amnesty International activists just before their departure from Toronto, September 19:

The Iranian-Canadian cyclists organized a loop around Central Park, starting at Columbus Circle at 10:30 this morning, to bring their message to New Yorkers, before heading for the Iranian Mission at 40th Street and 3rd Avenue, where the first mass gathering of the day will take place at 12:30 PM. 'We all know Mr. Ahmadinejad will be addressing the UN on the 23rd of September,' the group explained on its FaceBook page. 'By cycling a all over New York City, we intend to draw attention to the widespread and systematic human rights abuses that have, and still continue to take place in Iran. We ask you to join us to show solidarity with the people of Iran and condemn the violation of human rights worldwide.'

The protesters in front of the Iranian Mission will walk north on 3rd Avenue up to 47th Street, then head east to the main rally site at 3 PM local. The main demonstration will take place from 4 PM outside the UN Building near 47th Street and 2nd Avenue and will last for the duration of Ahmadinejad's speech which will start at around 5 PM local.

(For part 2 please go here)